A missing camera has made its way back to its owner six years after it was lost during a diving trip in Hawaii.
Lindsay Scallan of Newnan, Georgia, was scuba diving one night during a vacation in Maui in 2007 when she lost her camera, Hawaii News Now reports. Years later, it drifted all the way to Taiwan with its photos still intact.
"The seas were really rough. There was a lot of sand stirred up. It was hard to see," Scallan told the news station. The morning after the dive, she returned to the beach but couldn't find the camera, which had been in a waterproof case.
Last month, a China Airlines employee spotted the Canon PowerShot along a beach on Taiwan's east coast. According to Sky News, Douglas Chen opened the camera, which was encrusted with barnacles, to find a memory card containing visible photos of Scallan's Hawaii visit.
Chen had the airline contact its Honolulu staff, who launched a search with help from the media. A former classmate of Scallan's was alerted to a news story and reached out to her.
"I get this random message on Facebook from a guy I went to high school with, saying his wife found an article and he thought it was about me and my camera," Scallan told CBS Atlanta.
Scallan added that she had come to terms with the loss and never expected this outcome. Now, China Airlines has offered Scallan an trip to Taiwan -- all expenses paid -- to collect the camera.
"Ms. Scallan is welcome to visit Taiwan so that she can take home the invaluable memories of her trip to Hawaii," airline official Lee Wen-yi told Sky News.